John Smart, Portrait of David Reid, 1802

Chicago:

Maggie Keenan, “John Smart, Portrait of David Reid, 1802,” catalogue entry in Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan, The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, vol. 4, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2025), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.1622.

MLA:

Keenan, Maggie. “John Smart, Portrait of David Reid, 1802,” catalogue entry. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan. The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, vol. 4, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2025. doi: 10.37764/8322.5.1622.

See the artist’s biography in volume 4.

Provenance research on this painting, previously titled Portrait of Dr. Reid, has further identified the sitter. The portrait first appeared in a 1949 sale from Harry Seal’s renowned collection of portrait miniatures.¹ The lot description stated, “From the Collection of F. J. D. Reid, Esq., formerly of Fermoy, Co. Cork, a descendant of the sitter.” Tracing the Reid family lineage provided the insight necessary to make a positive attribution of the sitter, from the consignor, Francis James David Reid (1848–1924) of Fermoy; to his father, James Reid (1810–1854); and, finally, to F. J. D. Reid’s grandfather David Reid (1761–1845), the sitter for this portrait. The erroneous title of “Dr.” may have have derived from F. J. D. Reid himself being a surgeon, but more likely it was because the monogram on the case verso reads “DR.”

David Reid was born in Tain, County Ross, Scotland, in 1761 to John Reid and Mary Ross.² His older brothers found success as partners in companies that still exist today. Andrew Reid (1751–1841) was a distiller and merchant of wine and spirits at Meux, Reid and Co. Brewery.³ It is probable that John Smart was introduced to the Reids through Robert Wigram, a frequent sitter for Smart and a fellow partner in the brewery.⁴

David’s other brother, John (1757–1821), was a merchant of the China-based firm Cox, Reid, and Beale.⁵ Despite the enormous profits the firm made, John went bankrupt and left China for England, with David replacing him at his post in Canton (now Guangzhou).⁶ England’s Honourable East India Company (HEIC) held a tight monopoly over trade in China, preventing any “free merchants” from taking up residence there, but John and others found a loophole through serving as consuls.⁷ David Reid reported his commission to the HEIC as Captain of Infantry in His Danish Majesty’s service, stating, “It is in consequence of orders from that court that I am now here.”⁸ He left China in 1800 but continued doing business for Cox, Reid, and Beale until around 1804, when the company became Beale and Magniac.⁹

Reid settled in Ireland and married Jane Bell of Dublin in 1801.¹⁰ It is possible that this miniature was a marriage portrait or marked Reid’s transition into new business ventures. Smart painted the forty-one-year-old Reid in a simple navy coat with slightly pink powdered hair. Smart’s reputation for “warts and all”¹¹ depictions rings true here in Reid’s tired eyes, encircled with wrinkles, below which appears a mole sprouting three vertical hairs. While little is known about the second half of Reid’s life, we know that he was living in Millbank house, Fermoy, County Cork, Ireland, as early as 1814. The house stayed in the family for the next two generations, which helps to solidify the painting’s provenance.¹² Reid was survived by his wife and three sons after his death in 1845.¹³

Notes

1. Catalogue of The Choice Collection of Portrait Miniatures, formed by the late Harry Seal, Esq., Christie, Manson and Woods, London, February 16, 1949, lot 67, as Dr. Reid.

2. Rev. A. W. Cornelius Hallen, ed., The Scottish Antiquary, or Northern Notes and Queries (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1889), 3:68.

3. Andrew Reid joined the business in 1793, and after John Reid’s return from China in 1797 he became a partner as well. See “Reid’s Brewery Co Ltd,” The Brewing Industry: A Guide to Historical Records (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990), 274.

4. “Appendix to Chronicle: Deaths,” The Annual Register, or a View of the History, Politics, and Literature of the Year 1830 (London: Baldwin and Cradock, 1831), 277. Wigram also owned several vessels that traded in India and China. He was one of the leading importers of drugs in England. Smart painted Wigram in 1800 and completed at least twelve drawings of his family. See John Smart, Portrait Miniature of Sir Robert Wigram, 1st Baronet of Wexford, 1800, watercolor on ivory, 3 in. (7.8 cm) high, previously in the collection of Philip Mould.

5. Richard Grace, Opium and Empire: The Lives and Careers of William Jardine and James Matheson (London: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014), 123; José Maria Braga, A Seller of ‘Sing-Songs’: A Chapter in the Foreign Trade of China and Macao (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1967), 95. Daniel Beale joined the firm in 1783. The other partner, John Henry Cox, was the son of famous clockmaker and automaton inventor James Cox (ca. 1723–1800). The company had at least ten name changes. William Jardine joined the company in the 1820s. The firm still exists today under the name Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited, or Jardines. The company acted as agents for India-based shippers of raw materials. The firm’s ventures included sailing to Canada to trade with Indigenous Americans for fur, which they later sold in China. Their ships also carried cotton, opium, and products from India.

6. According to Braga, A Seller of ‘Sing-Songs,’ 95. John had probably been selling goods from India, purchased on credit, to Cantonese merchants, or lending money borrowed in India to Cantonese merchants, so “when these debtors absconded he sustained such heavy losses that he had to declare himself insolvent.” See also Hosea Ballou Morse, The Chronicles of the East India Company Trading to China 1635–1834 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1926), 2:85.

7. Michael Greenberg, “The Honourable Company and the Private English,” British Trade and The Opening of China 1800–42 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1951), 18, 20, 22. A 1786 Act of Parliament gave the HEIC “full powers of control over licensed ‘country merchants’ voyaging to China.” John arrived on the China coast carrying diplomatic papers designating him Austrian consul.

8. John King Fairbank, Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast: The Opening of the Treaty Ports, 1842–1854 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953), 62:61; Greenberg, “Honourable Company,” 27. The quoted passage originates from Morse, Chronicles, 206.

9. Grace, Opium and Empire, 80; Greenberg, “Honourable Company,” 28. A 1797 letter from Dutch officer R. J. Dozij to David Reid mentions the company’s debt of 9,495.731 taels plus 10 percent interest; National Archives, The Hague (NAH: Canton 303), reproduced in Paul A. Van Dyke, Merchants of Canton and Macao: Success and Failure in Eighteenth-Century Chinese Trade (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2016), plate 02.05. Letters between Alexander Shank and Reid in 1801 and 1802 confirm his continued business dealings; some are quoted in Greenberg, “Honourable Company,” 78. Charles Magniac joined the firm after Reid left China.

10. “Marriages: David Reid, Esq. of Canton in China, to Miss Bell, of Dublin,” Edinburgh Magazine 18 (July 1801): 319.

11. Cromwell used this phrase to describe Samuel Cooper’s (ca. 1608–1672) portraits. Quoted by Philip Mould in “Cromwell’s ‘Warts and All’ Portraitist Get First Exhibition in 40 Years,” The Guardian (November 8, 2013).

12. Ambrose Leet, A Directory to the Market Towns, Villages, Gentlemen’s Seats, and Other Noted Places in Ireland (Dublin: Brett Smith, 1814), 286.

13. Reid was the executor of his brother John’s will. A 1796 portrait by George Engleheart of a John Reid was previously in the inventory of Philip Mould; see “Portrait miniature of John Reid, 1796,” Historical Portraits Image Library, accessed October 26, 2022, https://historicalportraits.com/artists/74-george-engleheart/works/3470-george-engleheart-portrait-miniature-of-john-reid-1796/. There is not enough evidence to say whether this is the same John Reid, but David’s brother lived at 48 Bedford Square, London, and married Ann Holland in 1795, so it is possible the work by Engleheart was, like the present miniature, a marriage portrait.

Probably commissioned by the sitter, David Reid (1761–1845), Fermoy, County Cork, Ireland, 1802–1845;

By descent to his son, James Reid (1810–1854), Fermoy, Cork, Ireland, 1845–1854 [1];

Inherited by his wife, Anne Matilda Reid (née Cotter, d. 1860), Fermoy, Cork, Ireland, 1854–1860 [2];

By descent to their son, Francis James David Reid (1848–1924), Fermoy, Cork, Ireland, 1860–1924 [3];

Harry Seal (1873–1948), Ullesthorpe House, Leicestershire, England, by 1926–1948 [4];

Purchased from his posthumous sale, The Choice Collection of Portrait Miniatures, formed by the late Harry Seal, Esq., Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, February 16, 1949, lot 67, as Dr. Reid, by Martyn, 1949 [5];

Unknown owner, by 1949 [6];

Purchased from the unknown owner’s sale, Objects of Art and Vertu, Miniatures, Coins, and Glass Paperweights, Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, December 19, 1949, lot 117, as Portrait of Dr. Reid, by Leggatt Brothers, London, probably on behalf of Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, 1949–2011 [7];

By descent to their son, Mr. John Philip (b. 1933), and daughter-in-law, Mrs. Barry Mann (b. 1939) Starr, Kansas City, MO, 2011;

Given to their son, James Philip Starr (b. ca. 1963), Kansas City, MO, by 2017–2018;

His gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2018.

Notes

[1] According to “Will of James Reid of Mill Bank, Cork,” The National Archives, Kew, England, Records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, PROB 11/2193/419: “immediately after the decease of my said wife as to Mill Bank with the plate pictures and books aforesaid to the use and upon trust for my eldest son Francis James David Reid if and when he shall attain the age of twenty one years.”

[2] The couple had at least four other children, in addition to Francis James David Reid.

[3] F. J. D. Reid was a surgeon at Bridport Hospital, Dorset and a retired officer of the “Inniskilling” Dragoons and the 6th Dragoons. His marriage announcement confirms James Reid of Millbank house is his father: “Reid—Beamish—On October 13, at St. Luke’s Church, Cork, Francis J. D. Reid, Esq., of Millbank-house, Fermoy, to Ellen Catherine, second daughter of William Beamish, M. D., of Cork.” See “Medical News: Marriages,” The Medical Times and Gazette: A Journal of Medical Science, Literature, Criticism, and News (London: John Churchill and Sons, 1870), 2:522.

[4] The provenance included in the following lot description suggests that the miniature was no longer in Reid’s collection by 1926; he had passed two years prior, in 1924.

[5] Described in the sales catalogue as, “Dr. Reid (1762–1822), by John Smart, signed with initials and dated 1802. Three-quarter face to the right, in dark blue coat and white cravat, with grey hair. Oval—3 in. high—in gold locket, the reverse with his initials ‘D. R.’ in gold on plaited hair. From the Collection of F. J. D. Reid, Esq., formerly of Fermoy, Co. Cork, a descendant of the sitter, 1926.” According to Art Prices Current (1947–49), “Martyn” bought lot 67 for £57 15s.

[6] In the December 19, 1949, sale, “Different Properties” sold lots 98–119.

[7] “Portrait of Dr. Reid (1762–1822), by John Smart, signed with initials and dated 1802, three-quarter face to the right, in dark blue coat and white cravat, with grey hair – oval, 3in. high, in gold locket, the reverse with his initials D.R. in gold on plaited hair.” According to Art Prices Current (1949–1950), Leggatt bought lot 117 for £99 15s. Archival research indicates that the Starrs purchased many miniatures from Leggatt Brothers, either directly or with Leggatt acting as their purchasing agent. See correspondence between Betty Hogg and Martha Jane Starr, May 15 and June 3, 1950, Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.

Catalogue of The Choice Collection of Portrait Miniatures, formed by the late Harry Seal, Esq. (London: Christie, Manson, and Woods, February 16, 1949), lot 67, as Dr. Reid.

Catalogue of Objects of Art and Vertu, Miniatures, Coins, and Glass Paperweights (London: Christie, Manson, and Woods, December 19, 1949), lot 117, as Portrait of Dr. Reid.

Daphne Foskett, John Smart: The Man and His Miniatures (London: Cory, Adams, and Mackay, 1964), plate XXIV, no. 88, pp. xiv, 73, (repro.), as Dr. Reid.